Is Sex With Robots Rape?

It is widely accepted that valid consent is a necessary condition for permissible sexual activity. Since non-human animals, children, and individuals who are severely cognitively disabled, heavily intoxicated or unconscious, lack the cognitive capacity to give valid consent, this condition explains why it is impermissible to have sex with them. However, contrary to common intuitions, the same condition seems to render it impermissible to have sex with robots, for they too are incapable of consenting to sex due to insufficient cognitive capacitation. This paper explores whether the intuition that non-consensual sex with robots is permissible can be vindicated, whilst preserving valid consent as a general requirement for permissible sexual activity. I develop and evaluate four possible ways to argue that there is a morally significant difference between robots on the one hand, and insufficiently cognitively capacitated humans and non-human animals on the other hand, to substantiate and justify the intuition that it is permissible to have non-consensual sex with the former but not with the latter

The personal information sphere: An integral approach to privacy and related information and communication rights

Data protection laws, including the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, regulate aspects of online personalization. However, the data protection lens is too narrow to analyze personalization. To define conditions for personalization, we should understand data protection in its larger fundamental rights context, starting with the closely connected right to privacy. If the right to privacy is considered along with other European fundamental rights that protect information and communication flows, namely, communications confidentiality; the right to receive information; and freedom of expression, opinion, and thought, these rights are observed to enable what I call a “personal information sphere” for each person. This notion highlights how privacy interferences affect other fundamental rights. The personal information sphere is grounded in European case law and is thus not just an academic affair. The essence of the personal information sphere is control, yet with a different meaning than mere control as guaranteed by data protection law. The personal information sphere is about people controlling how they situate themselves in information and communication networks. It follows that, to respect privacy and related rights, online personalization providers should actively involve users in the personalization process and enable them to use personalization for personal goals

Repatriation of an old fish host as an opportunity for myxozoan parasite diversity: The example of the allis shad, Alosa alosa (Clupeidae), in the Rhine

Background: Wildlife repatriation represents an opportunity for parasites. Reintroduced hosts are expected to accumulate generalist parasites via spillover from reservoir hosts, whereas colonization with specialist parasites is unlikely. We address the question of how myxozoan parasites, which are characterized by a complex life-cycle alternating between annelids and fish, can invade a reintroduced fish species and determine the impact of a de novo invasion on parasite diversity. We investigated the case of the anadromous allis shad, Alosa alosa (L.), which was reintroduced into the Rhine approximately 70 years after its extinction in this river system. Methods: We studied parasites belonging to the Myxozoa (Cnidaria) in 196 allis shad from (i) established populations in the French rivers Garonne and Dordogne and (ii) repatriated populations in the Rhine, by screening the first adults returning to spawn in 2014. Following microscopical detection of myxozoan infections general myxozoan primers were used for SSU rDNA amplification and sequencing. Phylogenetic analyses were performed and cloned sequences were analyzed from individuals of different water sources to better understand the diversity and population structure of myxozoan isolates in long-term coexisting vs recently established host-parasite systems. Results: We describe Hoferellus alosae n. sp. from the renal tubules of allis shad by use of morphological and molecular methods. A species-specific PCR assay determined that the prevalence of H. alosae n. sp. is 100 % in sexually mature fish in the Garonne/Dordogne river systems and 22 % in the first mature shad returning to spawn in the Rhine. The diversity of SSU rDNA clones of the parasite was up to four times higher in the Rhine and lacked a site-specific signature of SNPs such as in the French rivers. A second myxozoan, Ortholinea sp., was detected exclusively in allis shad from the Rhine. Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that the de novo establishment of myxozoan infections in rivers is slow but of great genetic diversity, which can only be explained by the introduction of spores from genetically diverse sources, predominantly via straying fish or by migratory piscivorous birds. Long-term studies will show if and how the high diversity of a de novo introduction of host-specific myxozoans succeeds into the establishment of a local successful strain in vertebrate and invertebrate hosts

Early clinical studies exploring new targets in anticancer treatment

Chemotherapy for cancer has always greatly relied upon the use of cytotoxic agents. These agents exert their activity in the process of nuclear DNA and RNA replication, and their activity in sensitive models leads to cell death and subsequent tumor shrinkage. Although a number of human tumor types can nowadays be cured by treatment involving cytotoxic agents, the overall clinical balance of efficacy and toxicity of these agents remains disappointing. In contrast to the situation with cytotoxic agents, where introduction as anticancer agent is usually preceded by large-scale random screening procedures, more recent research has focussed on anticancer agents for which development and design was preceded by the identification of specific tumor-related molecular targets or processes. These targets and processes are located either intracytoplasmic, in the cell membrane, or even completely outside the tumor cell itself. Examples of these molecular targets and processes are the intracytoplasmic polyamine synthesis pathway and farnesyl transferase pathway, the activity of various transmembrane signal transduction pathways, and the enzymatic breakdown of the extracellular matrix and the process of tumor-related angioneogenesis, respectively. Numerous animal studies with these new so-called rationally designed anticancer agents, aiming at one of the above targets, yielded no or only minor toxicity. The predictive value of results of animal studies for the human situation, however, is relatively limited. Nevertheless, in theory, when performing clinical studies with such compounds, toxicity may turn out to be absent or only mild. As a resultant, defining dose limiting toxicity as an endpoint for phase I studies may not be possible, and consequently, defining a recommended dose for additional activity testing might proof to be difficult. Many of these new anticancer agents were shown in preclinical studies to have a cytostatic rather than cytotoxic effect. Although in a limited number of these studies tumor regressions were noted, growth inhibition was the most frequently seen effect. Although, as said, such results cannot easily be extrapolated to the human situation, it may still be anticipated that these agents are not likely to induce tumor regression in clinically detectable tumor masses. Because of this, performing phase II studies might not make too much sense. Taken these considerations together, it is obvious that the design of clinical studies with new cytostatic agents needs a thorough reappraisal. This thesis involves clinical phase I studies performed in this shifting field of anticancer treatment. It outlines several of the problems described above and reports on efforts made to suggest alternative study endpoints